PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe, at his wits' end as he confronts a
deepeningeconomic and political crisis, has threatened to seize private
businesses heaccuses of sabotaging the economy to incite Zimbabweans to
rebel against hisgovernment. But analysts this week said such a
move could spell his administration's quickened downfall.

The
government is grappling with its most dangerous crisis sincewinning power in
1980, dramatised by severe food and foreign currencyshortages, isolation by
the international community and swelling support foropposition-led mass
protests to force a re-run of a presidential electioncontroversially won by
Mugabe two months ago.

Political scientist Masipula Sithole echoed
a widely held view thisweek when he said nationalising industries would be a
blind move that couldignite the demise of Mugabe's 22-year-old
administration.

"It is a demise that is increasingly looking
inevitable any how," saidSithole, a political science lecturer at the
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) andalso head of the Institute of Mass Public
Opinion, a Harare-based politicalthink-tank.

More than half of
Zimbabwe's population of 12 million faces starvationunless the international
community urgently provides more than 500 000tonnes of the staple maize and
other basic foodstuffs to the southernAfrican nation.

Salt,
which became scarce two weeks ago prompting Mugabe's threats totake over the
salt-making firms, is only one in a long list of basiccommodities such as
sugar, cooking oil, soap and even essential drugs andmedicines which are now
rare in Zimbabwe.

Bread, seen as an alternative to maize-meal, is
also becoming scarcebecause of shortages of wheat, sugar and
salt.

UZ business studies professor Tony Hawkins said a Soviet
Union-styleseizure of private firms in the era of the free-trade global
village wouldhave dire consequences for an already collapsing economy and
could not be anoption for the government.

But Hawkins was quick
to point out that Mugabe's threats should betaken seriously, if only because
of the seizure of private farms by thegovernment and its supporters which
the 78-year-old President had oftenthreatened before.

"It is
unthinkable, but what is happening in agriculture was alsounthinkable.
Perhaps one should not get surprised if one of these days theselatest
threats are followed through," the highly respected economist said.

Last week the government scaled new heights in its often chaotic landreforms
when it gave about 3 000 of the country's largest producing farmersa 45-day
ultimatum to stop farming and vacate their land or
faceprosecution.

Coupled with last year's poor rains, the
government's fast-track landreforms and the illegal farm seizures by its
supporters are largely blamedfor Zimbabwe's worst food crisis.

Critics say Mugabe and his government - and not private businesses -should
be held directly responsible for the food shortages and economic ruinbecause
of their skewed land policies, bloated human rights record and
harshcrackdown on political opponents and the media, all which have combined
toscare away foreign investors and capital.

Most of the
remaining foreign investors abandoned Zimbabwe during therun-up to the
violent March presidential vote when pro-government militantsinvaded
companies, forcing employers to award salary hikes to workers and tore-hire
dismissed employees.

But Hawkins said if this time round Mugabe was
to follow through histhreat and take over companies, such a step could be
the last straw to breakthe back of an economy that only a few years ago was
one of Africa's mostpromising.

"For example, the government is
unable to provide capital for its owncompanies and parastatals (partly
state-owned firms)," Hawkins noted.

"Where would it get the money
to run theses business, let alone themanagerial expertise
required?"

State-funded firms such as the National Railways of
Zimbabwe (NRZ),the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) and the Grain
Marketing Boardare regularly rocked by scandals and financial woes which
critics say can betraced to the ruling ZANU PF's politics of patronage of
appointingincompetent party followers to head these.DiDter

Hawkins said: "The government's threat to seize companies is pregnantwith
disaster in that whatever the government has taken over has neverworked
again. Look at Air Zimbabwe, NRZ and NOCZIM."

Sithole said any
escalation of the economic hardships alreadytormenting Zimbabweans could
only turn Mugabe's worst fears into reality -asocio-economic driven
revolution.

Such hardships would make Zimbabweans much eager to
support massprotests against the government if the opposition Movement for
DemocraticChange (MDC) were to go ahead with its threatened mass
action.

The MDC says it will call mass protests at any time now to
force are-run of the March ballot, which the opposition party and the
internationalcommunity say Mugabe stole from MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.

Although Mugabe insists that he won relatively free and
fair polls,the international community has responded by imposing travel bans
and othersanctions on the veteran leader and his inner circle, increasing
the siegeon the troubled country.

AS chickens predictably come home to roost, an
infuriated PresidentRobert Mugabe chooses not to see them and to learn the
hard lessons of thepast which they bring.

Mugabe's weekend
threat to seize companies which he accuses of causingshortages of foodstuffs
not only fails to address the underlying causes ofZimbabwe's descent into
deeper economic turmoil but highlights the failureof
governance.

Instead of taking a hard look at the trigger of the
ever wideningshortages, the President has decided to use the iron fist
symbolised by hisnumerous recent threats to try to resolve a policy issue
which emanates fromnone other than his own administration.

The
shortage of salt, only the latest to afflict crisis-wearyZimbabweans, has
been caused by the government's own price controlsre-introduced with much
defiance last October.

We advised at the time and we do so again
that no business will thriveunder price controls, more so in the highly
inflationary climate of Zimbabwethat fuels galloping costs of
production.

If hoarding or any other economic crime is being
committed by anycompany, let it be punished fully under the
law.

In the case of salt, it was none other than salt-maker
National Foodswhich told the government the amounts of stocks it held, which
it wanted tobe re-priced before being distributed. There is no suggestion
therefore thatthe company was hoarding the salt.

After last
week's state seizure of the limited salt that is available,has anyone in the
government for example mapped out what will be doneafterwards when National
Foods is forced to close down because it can nolonger find the hard currency
it requires to import the ingredients neededto manufacture the
commodity?

At any rate, the takeover of National Foods or any other
company bythe government will certainly not resolve the economic crisis but
onlyexacerbate it.

Just witness the financial and management
chaos which have marked therunning down of virtually all state-owned firms,
which have proven to be asevere strain on the national fiscus, and you can
be certain that NationalFoods would go down the same route.

The
government must simply go back to the drawing board to do what ithates most:
to abolish the stifling price controls if commodities of anynature are to
continue to be on the Zimbabwe market.

For goods and services to be
available at affordable prices, thisrequires that the government acts with
resolution on restoring stability toZimbabwe's blighted macro-economic
landscape.

Crucially, as we have stated too often before, this
requires that thegovernment brutally cuts down its runaway spending which
has triggered anunsustainably high budget deficit which is fuelling rampant
inflation andcrippling interest rates.

No amount of threats by
Mugabe or anyone will ease Zimbabwe's economiccrisis unless these very basic
measures are wholeheartedly taken on board bythe government.

Indeed the issue of food shortages now stalking Zimbabwe is notdifferent to
the salt saga.

The wholesale seizure of productive farms by the
government and itssupporters in the name of land hunger is the chief cause
of the presentfamine, which tragically affects half the population. The
drought is onlyone of the factors.

As everyone now knows,
Mugabe and his government would brook no onewho at the time called for a
halt to the fast-track land reforms, and theresult is there for all to
see.

The farm seizures have not only deprived Zimbabweans of food,
but arethreatening the very survival of the country's single biggest export
oftobacco, which earns the foreign currency now desperately in short
supply.

The hard cash crisis threatens to shut down the entire
economy andyet, once again, the government defiantly marches ahead to evict
vastlyexperienced tobacco farmers from their land in the name of addressing
acolonial injustice.

No sensible person questions the need for
redistributing land toZimbabwe's dispossessed black majority, but the
violent and chaotic natureof the reforms which have disrupted farming and
triggered the country'sworst food crisis.

Is it too much to ask
Mugabe and the government to learn from thepainful lessons of the land
reforms so that they do not repeat the samemistakes by taking over
productive private companies?

WHENEVER national
currencies fall dismally against major currencies,speculators are mentioned
in the culprit search.

Remember the first major fall of the
Zimbabwe dollar on FridayNovember 14 1997 ( The Black Friday)? Who was
blamed? Speculators!

Recently in neighbouring South Africa when the
rand lost 17 percent ofits value in December 2001, the Myburgh Commission of
Inquiry was set up toinvestigate the causes. Once again currency speculators
were at the fore andat one time described as "profiteering opportunists
bereft of ethics."

On the other hand a talk about economic growth
is incomplete if theterm investors has not yet been mentioned.

Investors are regarded as the key to business expansion thatultimately
translates to economic growth.

Only last week I advised a friend to
invest on the stock market and hegave me the remark "No that's gambling. You
know I don't like gambling." Butthen this is not true.

By
drawing examples from stock market activity let us make adistinction between
investors, speculators and gamblers.

An investor is one who puts
his money into a fund or stock because heunderstands the business the
company he is investing in is into and believesthe company will be
successful.

For example one can invest in a counter Boleh Plc
(listed) with anoptimistic view about its profit and also its dividend. Such
an investmentdecision is usually based on sound fundamental analysis of the
company inquestion and is usually held with a long term view - can be up to
manyyears.

A speculator takes unusually high risks in order to
make unusuallyhigh returns if he is successful.

Unlike an
investor a speculator cares less about the company dividendsand profits. For
example one may commit huge amounts of money in a stocktemporarily in
expectation the share price will go up in value then he sellsthe
counter.

A speculator cares nothing about the company underlying
stock,whatever he may know about it. It is just something to be bought and
sold.Now there is an element of chance in this. But wait!

It is
totally false to equate trading in stocks with what is done atMonte Clair or
the Harare Exhibition Park.

The gambler at a casino is playing
against odds that are against him.When he pulls the lever of the slot
machine, the expected value of hiswinnings is less than the money he puts
in. The house takes its cut!

Therefore the gambler is someone who
plays with the odds against himfor the joy of making money move and for the
irrational hope that he willget lucky. Gambling is just innocent
fun.

Although speculators are often portrayed as frenzied and
amoral marketplayers who devour national economies like a parasite attacks a
healthybody, the truth is we are all speculators.

We all
contribute to speculative madness. It all goes down to thebasis of arriving
at our investment decision and the motive for making yourinvestment
decision.

By the way, speculators are an essential component of an
efficientmarket system.

Owen Mutetwa holds a Bachelor of
Commerce Honours degree in Bankingfrom the National University of Science
and Technology. He can be contactedon e-mail cabomutetwa@yahoo.com

REPRESENTATIVES of
AIDS bodies in Zimbabwe this week accusedgovernment and ruling ZANU PF party
officials of hijacking relief fundscollected from the billion-dollar annual
AIDS levy meant for HIV-positivepeople and their beneficiaries just when the
government has declared anemergency to fight the killer
disease.

Zimbabwe recently declared a state of emergency to pave
way for theimportation and possible local manufacture of cheap
anti-retroviral drugs todeal with the runaway pandemic that is claiming the
lives of about 2 000people every week.

HIV-positive Zimbabweans
and local AIDS activists this week howeveraccused ZANU PF of politicising
the distribution of money from the levythrough the government-aligned
District AIDS Action Committees (DA AC).

Dominica Banure, the
district representative of the Zimbabwe NationalNetwork of People Living
with HIV (ZNNP+) in Chirimhanzu, said manyHIV-positive Zimbabweans were
suffering and dying without getting any aidfrom the state-imposed
levy.

She said this had been caused by the politicisation of
thedistribution of the levy by DAACs, which were originally expected to
beimpartial.

"The funds are benefiting ZANU PF members and not
those people whoneed them," Banure charged in an interview with the
Financial Gazette.

"There was an AIDS workshop last year organised
by the DAAC for peopleliving with AIDS. Although people were supposed to go
to the workshop atwhich they would be given some money, we were told that
only one person fromour network would represent us and yet ZANU PF had three
members from eachward," she noted.

Banure said that at one
point, some senior ruling party officials toldthem that the AIDS money was
meant for the ruling ZANU PF's campaign leadingto the March presidential
election because it had come from "mother ZANU".

"After the
workshop, each district was given $140 000 but mother ZANUsaid it was for
the campaign. We were only given dried fish and blankets andwhen we
complained about this, we were chided and accused of belonging tothe
opposition," she said.

Banure said Zachary Maphosa, the ZANU PF
counsellor in Chirimhanzu,was fond of accusing anyone who criticised the
disbursement of the AIDSmoney as being a member of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change(MDC).

Jefter Mxotshwa, ZNNP+ acting
director, confirmed that he had received"nationwide" complaints concerning
the politicisation of money from the AIDSlevy.

"The district
committees are supposed to be giving money forprogrammes to the public but
ZANU PF committee members are purportedly usingthe money for political
mileage although we cannot readily justify theextent of these allegations,"
Mxotshwa said.

He said his organisation had contacted the
government-appointedNational AIDS Council (NAC) to alert it on his members'
concerns about theway ZANU PF had hijacked the disbursement of the AIDS
relief aid.

"We have already talked to NAC on the issue and they
are also findingit difficult to deal with it because there may be
individuals in districtcommittees with their own personal agendas that are
divorced from theactivities of NAC."

NAC's chief executive
officer Everisto Marowa, however, dismissed thecharges of favouritism,
saying his council was apolitical and only dealtwith those who needed the
kind of assistance it offered.

"For us, the fund is for those who
are deserving according to ourrequirements. The council has no label and all
is being done to ensure thatthis is observed," he said.

Responding to allegations that most of the intended HIV-positivepeople were
not getting the funds, Marowa said it was not feasible foreveryone suffering
from the disease to get assistance.

"In many instances, individuals
may not get cash but may benefit fromthe programmes run by the district AIDS
action committees to which the fundsare distributed," he said.

"For example in the programmes we run, orphans are sent to school andeven if
the money is not received by the schools, the children are not sentaway from
lessons."

Although school fees for children whose parents have died
of AIDS orare incapacitated by the disease should be distributed through the
BasicEducation Assistance Module (BEAM), many schools complain that the fees
arenever paid or are not paid in time.

One teacher who attended
the launch of Voices and Choices, a reportcompiled by the Women and AIDS
Support Network (WASN) on Monday, said theDAACs were causing problems for
many schools because some of their memberswere using their positions to
ensure that only relatives and members oftheir political party
benefited.

She said schools "were suffering" because other members
of the DAACsused the AIDS money for their own personal needs.

Some AIDS orphans were also being left out of the BEAM programmebecause the
committees identified the most needy and would in certaininstances choose
only children whose relatives were local politicalheavyweights.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the teacher said it was the
schooladministrators who had to foot the bill in the end because they could
notexpel those who had not paid the fees because of the problems with the
BEAMprogramme.

Anatolia Chamuka, who is HIV-positive, said
because of the way theAIDS levy is being abused, "it is better if taxpayers
refuse to contribute"to it.

"We do not gain from it and even
those who have relatives who are sickcannot help look after them through
this money because of the way it isbeing administered," said a visibly angry
Chamuka.

WASN director Barbara Dembedza said her agency was still
waiting forits share of the AIDS levy, although it had fulfilled all the
requirementsdemanded by NAC.

The NAC in April disbursed more
than $8 million to the ZimbabweNational Army and the Zimbabwe Republic
Police, $500 million to the Ministryof Health and Child Welfare and $95
million to the district AIDS actioncommittees throughout the
country.

The money was raised through taxes imposed by the
government when thelevy was introduced amid heavy public opposition in
2000.

It is administered and channelled to end-user anti-AIDS
organisationsby NAC.

FEW options are open to Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Simba Makoni asthe noose
tightens round his neck over his failure to rescue the countryfrom its worst
economic crisis, analysts said this week. A two-year-old foreign
currency crisis, which started after theInternational Monetary Fund
suspended crucial economic aid to Zimbabwe inOctober 1999, threatens to
abruptly cut Makoni's short stint as the country's fifth finance minister
since independence in 1980.

A storm is brewing over the alleged
failure by Makoni and centralReserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Leonard
Tsumba to steer the economyback on track and plug the free-fall in the value
of the Zimbabwe dollar.

Some ruling ZANU PF politicians are even
baying for the blood of thetwo men, who they accuse of adopting
inappropriate economic policies.

Analysts this week said Makoni, a
strong advocate of the free play ofmarket forces, was caught between a rock
and a hard place, with toughchoices to make between going along with the
populist thinking in thegovernment on key economic matters or taking the
more plausible butunpopular path towards meaningful reform.

The
analysts said Mako-ni had two options - to resign or press on witheconomic
reforms that could save Zimbabwe's economy from total collapse.

The
Zimbabwe Economics Society (ZES) said one of the solutions to theforeign
currency crisis should be an introduction of restrictive monetarypolicy,
which would rein in inflation and deflate speculative pressures onthe
exchange rate.

But ZES president Lovemore Kadenge said such an
option would beunpopular at present because the government had benefited
from theexpansionary monetary policy it has pursued for the past 17
months.

The government has deliberately kept interest rates low
since January2001 by flooding the money market with funds as part of efforts
to containthe cost of its domestic debt, estimated at about $300 billion -
more thanZimbabwe's total budget for this fiscal year ending in December
2002.

"Others in government would therefore not want a shift in
monetarypolicy because that would mean higher costs of borrowing at a time
thecountry is looking for money to buy maize and meet other
expenditures,"Kadenge told the Financial Gazette.

The
cash-strapped Zimbabwean authorities require more than US$800million ($44
billion) to import grain between now and May next year as wellas for other
drought relief programmes.

Another possible option for Makoni would
be to drastically reduce theuse of the government's overdraft facility at
the central bank, which hasbeen blamed for fuelling money supply growth and
inflation, both of whichare at record high levels of above 100
percent.

This is however largely seen as not a plausible option due
to thegovernment's bloated recurrent expenditure.

The analysts
noted that like other ministers before him, Makoni hadfailed to come up with
an effective industrialisation strategy for Zimbabweto boost production and
improve foreign currency inflows.

"For a start, he should come up
with a package of incentives targetedat the key export sectors such as
tobacco, horticulture, tourism andmanufacturing," said an economist with a
Harare commercial bank.

"Right now the country's biggest export
crop tobacco is under threatat a time there are serious foreign currency
problems, while anothercash-cow, horticulture, has been allowed to die due
to the problems thatbeset agriculture two years ago," the economist
said.

Zimbabwe's key agricultural sector has been in continuous
turmoilsince February 2000 when President Robert Mugabe sanctioned the
occupationof white-owned commercial farms by his supporters to punish the
owners forostensibly supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change.

Nearly 4 000 farms - or 90 percent of all fertile land in
thecountry - have been taken over by the government in the past two years
forthe resettlement of Mugabe's supporters and other landless
peasants.

The emerging cracks over the alleged mismanagement of the
economy havealso brought to the fore the lack of independence of the
RBZ.

"If the RBZ was truly independent, they would change the
currentmonetary policy which has promoted speculative behaviour among people
whohave been borrowing money at low interest rates and using that to
buyforeign currency on the parallel market," Kadenge said.

Under Africa's new economic rescue package NEPAD, central bankgovernors of
the African Union will be fully independent of
theirgovernments.

University of Zimbabwe business lecturer Tony
Hawkins said Makoni andTsumba should shoulder the blame for the economic
decay for failing to stickto their policies and ensure that they are
implemented.

"They have failed to deliver on what the economy
wants," Hawkins said.

The analysts spoke as pressure mounted on
Makoni to act on bureaux dechange and financial institutions accused of
fuelling the parallel hard cashmarket by trading at rates above the official
rate of 55 Zimbabwe dollarsagainst one American greenback.

The
Cabinet Committee on Financial and Economic Affairs, chaired byMugabe, last
week also threw out proposals by Makoni and Tsumba to devaluethe Zimbabwe
dollar.

ZIMBABWE'S militant
war veterans have demanded an audience withPresident Robert Mugabe to
complain over the allocation of farms to theindependence war fighters under
the government's land resettlement plan andtheir welfare.

The
meeting is scheduled for Saturday but the President's Office isyet to
confirm the appointment.

Andy Mhlanga, the secretary-general of the
Zimbabwe NationalLiberation War Veterans' Association, confirmed that a
delegation from hisassociation was scheduled to meet Mugabe this week but
declined to revealwhat they would discuss.

But sources said the
veterans would tell Mugabe they were unhappy withthe allocation of land
given to them by the government.

Most were dismayed that fertile
farms being seized by the governmentfrom commercial farmers were being
parcelled out to senior ruling ZANU PFofficials while the veterans were
being relegated to what one said was"barren tracts of land".

The veterans also want to complain about what they say is the failureof the
government to provide them with farm inputs so they can start
wintercropping.

Top ZANU PF politicians, including Cabinet
ministers, have grabbedfertile farms formerly owned by white farmers in most
provinces countrywide.

Mugabe promised to give the veterans 20
percent of all land that isacquired by the government under its
controversial fast-track reforms, whichthe President says must be completed
by August.

The veterans want to voice their concern in the manner
in which theState is evicting some of their members from farms they have
occupied withencouragement from the government. Most of these veterans had
already builthomes on these farms.

They will also question the
conduct of Local Government MinisterIgnatius Chombo, who has been leading
the evictions. Some veterans wantChombo sacked or at least removed from
overseeing the land resettlementprogramme.

The veterans are
also unhappy with the conduct of provincial governorswho they say are
inexplicably de-listing farms or evicting veterans fromfarms which are later
taken over by ZANU PF officials.

They want their monthly pensions
paid by the government to beincreased by 150 percent, from $7 890 to $20
000, the school fees allowancehiked from $20 000 per term per child to $35
000 and a specialstate-subsidised medical aid scheme set up for them and
their dependants.

In 1997 the veterans forced Mugabe to pay out
more than $4 billion inunbudgeted expenditure after staging a series of
violent protests againstwhat they said was the government's neglect of their
welfare.

Each veteran was subsequently paid a once-off gratuity of
$50 000 in amove which triggered Zimbabwe's present economic meltdown.

AFTER those two horrific road disasters that cost 48 human lives,everyone
wants to know: Who is to blame? Who is responsible? What caused
theaccident?

Was it bad driving? Human error? Was it the bad
state of our narrowroads? Once you ask such questions you are right into
budgetary politics:What do we spend our money on? What are our priorities?
Who makes thesedecisions? I remember a bus driver telling me that he was
forced by hisemployer to drive extremely long hours, all day and most of the
night, fordays on end so that he suffered from chronic fatigue while on the
road.Exactly four weeks later he died, together with 25 passengers, in a
head-oncollision. I felt his employer was more to blame than that
driver.

Similarly, certain people sitting in faraway Harare offices
decidingon our budget, including on how much to spend on road construction
andrepair, may have a greater responsibility for such fatal accidents than
themen who died driving the vehicles involved. Zimbabwe is facing famine
andstarvation. Not for the first time.

Drought is a regular
occurrence. It does not hit us like lightning outof a blue sky. It is
foreseeable and predictable, at least in the sense thatsooner or later there
will be a drought year again. Therefore, you have tobe prepared for it. The
grain silos must keep an adequate reserve at alltimes.

The
State is duty-bound to ensure food security. No one else can dothis. Like
healthcare, education, communication and transport, the basicfood
requirements of the nation will not be provided for by the famous"market
forces" as if by magic. Making sure there are enough basic foodsupplies is
too big a job to leave to private firms.

Government must play a
role here and take control for the common good. Not government alone
though. Whoever has the technical, managerial andbusiness expertise to
produce food must be encouraged by paying prices thatmake the risk of
farming worthwhile.

But this class of people, instead of adding to
their number from thepopulation as a whole, is now systematically being
destroyed. Does notgenuine land reform need such expertise? Those
responsible blithelyguaranteed food security at a time when the experts
warned them that therewould be a severe shortfall.

Do they
resign now that they have been proven so disastrously wrong? It does
not seem to be part of our political culture to acceptresponsibility for
failure.

It has been said that the popular vote, democratic
government, humanrights, good governance, accountability and transparency
are abstractconcepts ordinary people are not interested in. All that is mere
theory onlymiddle class intellectuals are interested in, they
say.

Urban workers and rural peasants who have their feet on the
ground don't want to hear about it. "You can't eat human rights," they are
supposed tobe saying. "You don't feed children with something called
'democracy'."

The present crisis teaches us that such talk is
dangerous andirresponsible. It is precisely bad governance that has got us
into thepresent fix from which we expect the rest of the world to rescue
us.

Bad governance consists precisely in government no longer
listening tothe people that put them into power, and out of arrogance no
longeranswering their questions. Good governance consists in leaders
beinganswerable, which means the same as responding to, or being responsible
to,the true sovereign, ie the voting public.

Why are the grain
silos empty in a country that used to be known asthe "bread basket of the
southern African region"? Is it merely due to a"natural disaster"? But then
why did the people in charge not havesufficient foresight to keep those
silos full? The citizens certainly havethe right to ask such questions in a
free media which is vitally importantprecisely when we do not want to send
our children to bed hungry. You cannoteat democracy, true. But you cannot
eat without democracy, either. A naturaldisaster is called in English an
"act of God". That is a fine way of evadingour own human
responsibility.

We blame God when it was our job to forestall, if
not the disaster,then at least its destructive effects.

People
ask: Why did God allow those young people from Masvingo toperish in a ball
of fire? They should also ask: What did we, and the leaderswho claim popular
support and responsibility, do to prevent it?

We were given
intelligence and foresight for a purpose. There is acontradiction in our
society. People want to be free agents. But if you tellthem, "Since it was
your free decision to do this, you must be heldresponsible," they turn round
and say: "No, I was under duress, I could nothelp it, it was not my fault."
You are enslaved to the ones you blame. Youadmit they still have control
over you.

How can you claim freedom, yet never accept
responsibility? Is it nottime to grow up? Children do not have to have
answer for themselves in acourt of justice. But as an adult you have to.
People want justice. Why dowe have to suffer? The question will not go away.
Will someone answer?

Will someone respond, accept responsibility?
That is the reverse sideof that precious coin called "freedom". Leaders who
claim to rule in thename of the people should be glad to be accountable to
them. Why would theybe afraid of them? Why should they have to gag
them?

There will be justice. There will be a judge and judgment.
That judgewill not want to know what we think the sins of the British are
(he knowsthem anyway). He will want to know what we have to say for
ourselves - what"we did to the least of his brothers and
sisters".

No more fooling and silly word games. The truth must come
out. Only ifwe answer in truth can we hope for a lenient judgment. There
will bejustice. So we must insist on it and keep asking questions until
leadersanswer for their actions or non-action.

Tony Leon, South Africa's opposition leader, says President
ThaboMbeki was failing to act against President Mugabe because he is
overwhelmedby his reputation.

Leon, the leader of the
Democratic Alliance (DA), said in Harareyesterday: "Mbeki fears his
Zimbabwean counterpart and has not been able totake any meaningful steps in
denouncing lawlessness and human rights abusesby him.

"Mugabe
plays the role of being the senior man and Mbeki the junior. Ithink Mbeki
fears Mugabe because he is the veteran leader in the region.

He
fought a long struggle in the trenches and has credentials whichmake Mbeki
feel very nervous about criticising him."

Leon attacked Mbeki's
policy of criticising human rights violations inthe Middle East where South
Africa has no influence, while keeping quietabout abuses in
neighbouringZimbabwe.

Accusing Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State
for Information andPublicity, of "spreadingfalsehoods", Leon denied he was
in Zimbabwe to"light fires".

He blamed Zimbabwe's economic
meltdown on the unfavourable policiesbeing pursued by Mugabe's
government.

Leon denied South Africa was imposing unofficial
sanctions on Zimbabweto put pressure on Mugabe's government to restore the
rule of law.

He said: "Mugabe is tightening the screws on himself.
The only thingtightening screws on Mugabe is his policies.

"People want to trade with and invest in Zimbabwe, but because of
thepolitical situation, the devaluing dollar and what is happening on
theparallel market, they cannot do so." South Africa is Zimbabwe's
biggesttrading partner.

Leon arrived on Sunday night to assess
the situation in the country.He was accompanied by Dan Malakele, the party's
vice-chairman and an MP, andDA MPs Nick Clelland-Stokes and Andries
Botha.

Leon, commenting on the
intended mass action by the MDC, warnedZimbabwe could slide into a civil war
if tensions between Zanu PF and theopposition party were not
eased.

He said: "If constitutional means to change bad governance
do not workpeople look for unconstitutional means. The new South Africa came
about as aresult of mass action."

But he refused to say whether
the MDC's intended mass action was worthpursuing. "I cannot comment on the
MDC's policies," Leon said.

"It's not even my business to comment
on Mugabe's policies, exceptthat they are negatively affecting South Africa
and the region as a whole."

He said Zimbabwe's criticism of the New
Economic Partnership forAfrican Development (Nepad), on the grounds that it
was a vehicle for there-colonisation of Africa showed a lack of trust in
South Africa's PresidentThabo Mbeki.

"That is a deeply
unhelpful remark and shows a complete lack of faithin what Mbeki is trying
to do. He has put both his regional andinternational reputation on the line
over Nepad."

He said for Nepad to work, there was need for sound
economic policiesand human rights to be observed throughout the continent.
Zimbabwe'snegative policies were bound to affect Nepad's success, he
said.

BULAWAYO - Several pump stations in
Bulawayo ran out of fuel yesterdayafter motorists, panicking because of
widespread speculation of an impendingfuel shortage in the city, bought
large quantities of fuel.

At several pump stations visited by the
Financial Gazette, long queuesof cars waited to be filled in as panic
gripped Zimbabwe's second city.

The long queues could be seen at
Amtec Motors along Robert Mugabe Way,at Bulawayo Service Station along Main
Street and at the Belmont ServiceStation near Belmont industrial
area.

Some pump stations were already displaying "No Fuel" signs
aftermotorists had bought all their stocks of diesel and
petrol.

The resort town of Victoria Falls was also reportedly
running out offuel, according to pump owners there.

Webster
Muri-ritirwa, chief executive of the state fuel procurementcompany National
Oil Company of Zimbabwe, could not be immediately reachedfor
comment.

But motorists and pump station employees in Bulawayo were
adamant thatthe city would have a critical fuel shortage.

Others suggested there could be a price increase in fuel.

"The
depot is dry. Petrol is finished but we have diesel and peopleare queueing
up for it.

"I think we have another fuel crisis just around the
corner," said oneworker at a BP and Shell Marketing depot in the
city.

Pump station owner Sam Ncube said: "I have been told by
officials fromsome distributors that this is temporary but I don't think so
because thequeues are getting longer every day."

Zimbabwe has
been having on and off fuel shortages since 1999 becauseof foreign currency
shortages caused by slumping exports and a cut-off ofaid by international
financial bodies and the West angered by the government's policies.

A PLOT to
oust Finance Minister Simba Makoni and Reserve Bank governorLeonard Tsumba
from their positions thickened this week when cracks emergedin the ruling
ZANU PF over implementation of fiscal and monetary policies toprop up the
tottering economy. Official sources said a faction within ZANU PF was
feverishlycampaigning for the dismissal of Makoni and Tsumba from their
positions.

The faction is accusing the two men of failing to come
up withcredible measures to stem a crippling foreign currency crisis, which
hasgripped Zimbabwe since November 1999 and threatens the entire economy
withtotal collapse.

Top business leaders with links with senior
ZANU PF politicians arealso involved in the behind-the-scenes campaign,
which gathered momentum inthe past week when President Robert Mugabe shot
down proposals from Makoniand Tsumba to ease the hard cash crisis through
the devaluation of theZimbabwe dollar.

The Cabinet Committee on
Financial and Economic Affairs, chaired byMugabe, unceremoniously threw out
the Makoni-Tsumba proposals to devalue andintroduce a dual exchange rate at
a meeting held in Harare last week.

Both Makoni and Tsumba had
suggested the introduction of an officialexchange rate based on inflation
differentials between Zimbabwe and itstrading partners and the commerial
rate which would be based on prevailingmacro-economic
fundamentals.

Philip Chiyangwa, ZANU PF's legislator for Chinhoyi
and head ofParliament's Committee on Empowerment, swung into action
immediately afternews of Mugabe's veto on the Makoni-Tsumba
proposals.

He blasted what he branded as non-performing officials
at the financeministry and the central bank and urged that these be fired,
exposing thegrand scheme set in motion to relieve Tsumba and Makoni of their
officialposts.

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who has
become one of the mostinfluential politicians because of his close ties with
Mugabe, is alsoagainst any devaluation, saying it would exacerbate
Zimbabwe's record highinflation of 122.5 percent.

"There is a behind-the-scenes campaign to
get Makoni and Tsumbareplaced," a senior Cabinet minister told the Financial
Gazette this week.

"This is because of their failure to stem the
slide of the dollar, theforeign currency crisis and their overall
stewardship of the economy," theminister said, preferring not to be
named.

"The bottom line is that there is no consensus between the
politiciansand the beaurocrats in the party on how to deal with the foreign
currencyissue and the economy," the minister added.

The group
chief executive officer of the financial group Finhold,Elisha Mushayakarara,
a finance ministry permanent secretary for 18 years,is tipped to take over
the reins at the Ministry of Finance.

The sources said efforts by
Makoni and Tsumba to deal with the hardcash shortages and the thriving
parallel market had been undermined bysenior politicians in ZANU PF who are
themselves allegedly involved inillegal foreign currency
dealings.

Two provincial governors own a chain of bureaux de change
in Harareand Bulawayo while some ministers have employed staff to mobilise
foreigncurrency on the parallel market from tourists at major resort
centrescountrywide.

The National Economic Conduct inspectorate
is already investigatingthe practice amid calls by the state media for the
shutting down of thebureaux de change.

Foreign currency for
government trips is also now being secured fromthe parallel market because
of biting shortages on the official market.

Makoni has made clear
that the Zimbabwe dollar is highly overvaluedand that Zimbabwe should
normalise its tense ties with internationalfinancial bodies such as the
International Monetary Fund so as to give thelocal economy emergency
balance-of-payments support.

Mugabe has rejected this, saying
Zimbabwe must pursue a home-growneconomic revival led by his controversial
agrarian reforms.

Makoni has also publicly called for a return of
"sanity" to Zimbabwe'stroubled commercial farming sector, where thousands of
ZANU PF militants,many armed, hold sway with Mugabe's open approval.

HARARE - An international media
rights group on Monday called onPresident Mugabe's government to stop
harassing the private media, saying itwas threatening the future of
independent journalism in Zimbabwe.

In a statement, Article
19 said the government must drop chargesagainst more than a dozen
journalists arrested in the last four months forreporting "falsehoods" or
for defamation.

The London-based organisation also called on the
government to repealnew laws requiring media houses and journalists to
register with astate-appointed media commission, stipulating heavy fines and
two-year jailterms for "unethical journalism".

"Together with
existing repressive laws and continuing incidents ofharassment of the
independent media, this has led to a climate in which itis becoming
increasingly difficult for independent journalists to operate inZimbabwe,"
it said.

The group said the government was using the laws
selectively againstthe private media, noting that no journalist from
Zimbabwe's state-ownedpress had been arrested.

The Zimbabwe
government argues that its new laws are not designed tosuppress press
freedom but to instil "ethical behaviour" in a sector it saysis being used
by its Western enemies to wage a hate and propaganda campaignagainst
Mugabe.

Eleven journalists have been arrested on charges of
"publishingfalsehoods". They include Andrew Meldrum, the Zimbabwe
correspondent forBritain's Guardian newspaper, who went on trial last month,
accused ofpublishing a false story alleging that Mugabe's supporters
beheaded a womanwhile her two children watched.

The government
says that story was part of a Western-backed campaignto damage Mugabe's
image since his re-election in March and to advance theinterests of the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has said he was robbed of victory byMugabe. - Reuter

SEVERAL sections of the Access to
Information and Protection ofPrivacy Act have been criticised as
unconstitutional, repressive and toohighly unreasonable to be accepted in a
democratic society.

The observations are contained in an
audit of the Act, produced byTawanda Hondora, a legal consultant, at the
request of the Media Instituteof Southern Africa (Misa)'s Zimbabwe
chapter.

The report, released at the weekend in Kariba during a
two-day seminarto launch a Media Defence Fund, said Section 40 should be
repealed.

Under the section, the Minister of State for Information
and Publicityin the President's Office, Professor Jonathan Moyo, is
empowered to appointa Media and Information Commission.

Dr
Tafataona Mahoso, the head of the Division of Mass Communication atthe
Harare Polytechnic was recently appointed its chairman.

Hondora
said: "This section should be repealed and the commissionshould be appointed
without any ministerial and government interference."

Misa
suggested that appointments should be made by Parliament becausethe
commission is a representative of all political parties, or by a
selectcommittee of the House.

It noted that the commission
should appoint its own chair and deputychairpersons as well as establish its
own rules of procedures.

The report described as unconstitutional
the decision to give thecommission judicial and disciplinary powers, saying
the courts to date havesuccessfully protected individuals from media
excesses.

Misa criticised the mandatory accreditation of
journalists underSection 79. The accreditation is undertaken by the
commission.

"Both in theory and practice, the commission is a
politically partisanbody. It is unlikely, therefore, that the commission
will accreditjournalists that are considered to be critical of the
government.

"The mere possibility of interference is sufficient to
render thecommission and its activities unconstitutional," the report
noted.

Hondora said that Section 80 which establishes offences
which will bedeemed to be an abuse of journalistic privilege was wholly
unconstitutional.In terms of this section it is criminal to publish
falsehoods.

"The criminalising of the failure to report accurately
places anunreasonable hindrance of freedom of expression as guaranteed by
theConstitution," Hondora said.

Over the past six months,
several journalists, mainly from the privatemedia, have been arrested for
allegedly violating Section 80. The cases arestill pending in the
courts.

The headmaster of Mdubiwa Secondary
School in Lower Gweru has beenthreatened with unspecified action by war
veterans after he allegedlyaccepted a donation of $200 000 worth of building
material from MDC MPs.

A group of suspected war veterans
and Zanu PF supporters allegedlybesieged the school last Saturday after they
got wind of the donation andthreatened the headmaster.

"The group threatened some
unspecified action and later dispersedafter failing to locate the
headmaster," said a source, who declined to benamed for fear of
victimisation.

The donation followed an urgent appeal for cash by
the schooldevelopment committee after health officials closed the school on
7 Mayciting inadequate sanitary facilities.

Gasela said in
Gweru yesterday: "The appeal was open to everyone, soas MP for the area, I
raised funds and with the help of Ncube donated 40bags of cement and other
building material to Mdubiwa Secondary School."

Both Gasela and
Ncube are residents of Lower Gweru. The headmaster,who identified himself
only as P C Juru, confirmed yesterday his school hadbeen closed, but
declined to comment about the donation from the MPs.

"We are still
in a very desperate situation because we need to raise$1 million to
construct new toilets, provide clean water and refurbish theclassrooms," he
said.

Juru declined to comment on the alleged visit to the school
by Zanu PFsupporters, referring all questions to the regional office in
Gweru.

Isaac Tanyanyiwa, the regional director for education in the
Midlands,could not be reached for comment.

Gasela described the
threats as unfortunate. "Did the ruling partysupporters want the school to
remain closed? Instead of threatening andvictimising the headmaster, they
should instead complement our efforts," hesaid.

Parents at the
school have moulded about 70 000 bricks towards theconstruction of new
toilet facilities.

Officials from the Ministry of Health and Child
Welfare descended onMaboleni and Matshaya primary schools last month and
ordered them to close.

But the schools defied the order and
remained open. In a relateddevelopment, Gweru businessman and former mayor
Patrick Kombayi, last weekdonated $50 000 to Mudavanhu School for Mentally
Handicapped Children.

The school, administered by Zimcare Trust,
has been grosslyunderfunded over the last three years and relies on generous
donations forits upkeep.

THE opposition MDC's
executive has concurred with a decision taken byits MPs to virtually boycott
Parliament because they accuse it ofrubber-stamping repressive government
legislation, it was learnt this week.

Party insiders said this week
the legislators, who met MDC leaderMorgan Tsvangirai last week, had decided
to attend a few sittings ofParliament a week and devote their energies on
fighting the governmentoutside the House.

The party had also
decided to boycott all sessions and functionspresided over by President
Robert Mugabe, who the MDC accuses of stealingthe March presidential ballot.
The party is challenging Mugabe's win in thecourts.

Last week's
meeting in Harare approved a resolution which saidParliament was being used
to bless repressive laws being made by Mugabe'sZANU PF and said there was no
need for MDC legislators to continueparticipating in its
business.

The insiders said the meeting especially noted that ZANU
PF had usedits majority in the House to pass controversial laws such as the
PublicOrder Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of
PrivacyAct to stifle democracy.

It is understood that all MDC
legislators and members of the party'sexecutive will meet shortly to
formally endorse last week's decisions.

The insiders said the
opposition party's MPs will now be attendingParliament once or twice a month
when the House is sitting only to re-affirmthe MDC's position as the
official opposition.

Political analysts note that the MDC is
obviously aware that its MPscould lose their seats were they to miss 21
consecutive sittings ofParliament, hence the token attendance.

The MPs will devote their time galvanising MDC structures to preparefor
sustained mass action to force a re-run of the disputed
presidentialballot.

ZIMBABWE'S bakers are seeking permission from
the government to raisethe controlled price of bread by at least 30 percent,
it was learntyesterday, as it emerged that the country could run out of
available wheatstocks by September this year.

The National
Bakers Association of Zimbabwe (NBAZ) yesterday said ithad applied to the
Ministry of Industry and International Trade for animmediate upward review
of the price of bread by about 30 percent.

NBAZ chairman Armitage
Chikwavira said his association had alsorequested another meeting with
Industry Ministry permanent secretary StuartComberbach and his agriculture
counterpart Ngoni Masoka over pleas by thebakers to have an additional 50
000 tonnes of wheat imported urgently toavert serious bread
shortages.

"We have submitted a paper to the government requesting
a 30 percentincrease in the price of bread," Chikwavira told the Financial
Gazette.

The request, if granted, would raise the price of a
standard loaf ofbread to about $78 from the present $60, which has been in
effect sinceApril.

"We have also submitted a paper to the
government making a request foran urgent meeting on our proposal for the
importation of 50 000 tonnes ofwheat," Chikwavira said.

No
comment was available from Industry and International TradeMinister Herbert
Murerwa or the ministry's acting permanent secretary EthelHlabangana.
Comberbach is out of Zimbabwe.

The bakers warned that Zimbabwe
could run out of wheat by Septemberbecause supplies were dwindling
fast.

Harare baker Eddie Cross said available wheat stocks would
last twomonths after which the country would run dry unless additional wheat
wasurgently imported before then.

Zimbabwe consumes 400 000
tonnes of wheat annually although only 150000 tonnes of the commodity are
expected to be produced this winter season,down from about 360 000 tonnes in
2001.

Many commercial farmers could not plant the crop after being
orderedby the government to stop farming under its controversial Land
AcquisitionAct.

"Bakers have therefore decided to cut bread
production but maintainproduction of confectionary (such as buns)," Cross
said.

He said bread production had been slashed by between 50 and
70 percentdue to the shortage of wheat.

Another baker based in
Gweru, David Gweva, said if the state-owned GMBwas not rationing the wheat,
the country would have required between 125 000and 150 000 tonnes of the
commodity until the next harvest in October.

The country now
requires between 50 000 and 60 000 tonnes of wheatuntil the next harvest due
to the GMB's rationing, although the bakers areoperating below
capacity.

"We will therefore continue to experience periods when
there will beinsufficient supplies of bread, especially during the weekends
when millersare closed," Gweva said.

The GMB last month reduced
its supplies to millers amid allegationsflour producers were hoarding the
commodity to create an artificial shortageof bread to cause civil
strife.

Supplies to millers were slashed from 7 200 tonnes a week
to about 4000 tonnes as President Robert Mugabe cracked down on alleged
economic"saboteurs" bent on trying to oust him from power.

Meanwhile, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)yesterday
blamed the government for fuelling shortages of basic goodsthrough
half-baked economic policies.

In a statement, MDC spokesman
Learnmore Jongwe dismissed allegationsof economic sabotage levelled against
his party and the private sector bythe government, saying the current
shortages of cooking oil, sugar, salt,bread and cigarettes were a result of
Mugabe's disruptive land reforms.

"Against this background, the
regime and its bandwagon ofspokespersons does not see anything wrong with
its policies and blameseveryone except itself for the failure of its
policies," Jongwe said.

More than 3 900 white-owned commercial
farms have been compulsorilyacquired by Mugabe since he embarked on the land
reforms in 2000.

FARM workers constitute a
large percentage of the Zimbabwean labourforce, but despite their
contribution to the economy, they remain one of themost marginalised groups
in society.

They do not have adequate educational
facilities for their children,or adequate pension plans and with the
fast-track land resettlementprogramme in progress, they are now faced with
the problem of displacement.

Some have been killed, assaulted and
harassed during the mayhem offarm invasions. Others chose to stand by their
former white employers whenit came to eviction, lending weight to the
age-old adage: "Better the devilyou know."

The June 2000
parliamentary and the March 2002 presidential electionshave left many
victims of conflict in their wake. Lack of tolerance wasglaringly apparent
as people with divergent views were brutalised during theelection
campaign.

Somebody once said: "The mark of a first class mind is
the ability tohold two contradictory opinions at the same
time."

But this is a tall order. Who then can engender the spirit
offorbearance and promote peace among the people of one nation who are
dividedalong political or religious lines?

An organisation
tucked away in the tranquil suburb of Milton Park,probably has the answer.
It is called the Coalition on Conflict Managementand is tasked with an
almost impossible responsibility - managing conflict.

Its location
in Milton Park is in sharp contrast with its mandate.Outside its premises,
there is no sign of its presence and the work it isengaged in.

Moreover, the atmosphere in this residential property-turned-office,is so
sedate it is ironic to talk about conflict.

The Coalition on
Conflict Management is the umbrella body ofnon-governmental organisations
involved in different activities but whosework sometimes involves conflict
in the communities they operate in.

Stembile Mpofu is the
co-ordinator of the alliance. She says: "TheCoalition on Conflict Management
is an initiative which originated in thecontext of the challenges that face
Zimbabwe today. It is composed of about30 organisations and is a national
and collective process founded on theprinciple of
non-violence."

Mpofu says the body has taken up the challenge of
cultivating aculture of non-violence so that disagreements can be resolved
withoutviolence.

The group believes that eventually, this will
lead to an improvedresolution of most conflict situations in the
country.

Founded in April 2000 soon after the first farm invasions,
thecoalition quickly realised that there would be no development if peace
didnot prevail.

"Development without Peace is not Sustainable"
and "It has becomeapparent that there is an indisputable link between peace
and development,"are some of the headlines in the association's
brochure.

The amalgamation did not have a secretariat until one was
establishedlast February.

Mpofu says many organisations are
faced with head-to-head situationsand their challenge is to resolve them
during their normal development workin urban and rural areas.

"These social development issues are mostly found in informalsettlements
created by the haphazard land reform programme. More often thannot, the
staff of these organisations are not equipped with skills to dealwith these
problems."

The coalition provides its member-organisations with
training incommunication management, reconciliation, rehabilitation and
traumacounselling together with human rights training.

Target
areas of training so far have been the youth, women and farmworkers and
people living in informal settlements like Hatcliffe, Porta Farmand
Dzivaresekwa.

Two workshops to empower farm workers lobbying for an
improved lifehave been held to date.

"We have managed to train
a small number of farm workers' leaders andwith the secretariat now in
place, we are putting together project proposalsso that we can get some
funding for the training of more farm workers andother target groups," Mpofu
says.

"The purpose of these workshops is to enable farm workers to
acquireleadership techniques, communication, advocacy and lobbying
skills.

The training is specifically geared towards the meetings to
be held byfarm workers and two parliamentary portfolios of Lands,
Agriculture andRural Resettlement and Labour and Social
Welfare."

The skills learnt will enable farm workers to articulate
theirgrievances and present them to the relevant authorities.

The General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe andthe
Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe are responsible for selecting
theparticipants.

The remarkable calming down of the political
situation in the countrymust lead to the prevalence of a peaceful
environment, Mpofu saysoptimistically.

"This will give us
access to rural areas and commercial farms whereour members couldn't go
because of the violence that dominated thepre-election period."

She urges journalists not to antagonise and aggravate already badsituations
by biased reporting.

"The media is very important in conflict
situations. It is verypowerful and can influence attitudes in so many
different ways," says Mpofu.

One of the member-organisations of the
coalition - the Non-ViolentAction and Strategies for Social Change (NOVASC),
shares the same premiseswith the secretariat.

NOVASC is an
organisation that seeks to promote dialogue, mediationand negotiation as
means of reaching constructive solutions to conflicts
anddisputes.

It works to prevent violence and dehumanising,
intolerant anddisrespectful behaviour during the processes of change, making
it one of theforemost organisations that deal directly with conflict
resolution.

NOVASC carries out its mandate through training
activities andinterventions in specific situations and its vision of social
change isspearheaded through a process led by organisations representing
people whoare marginalised, such as the poor, excluded, mistreated and
alienated.

It strengthens such organisations and inculcates the
specific skillsit espouses into their strategies.

"It is clear
to us all that we are at present living in a rapidlychanging society, in
which the old methods and ways of thinking are beingchallenged, questioned
and found wanting.

In many instances, violence has been the means
used to carry forwardthe demands for justice and change, or on the other
hand - to suppresschange and keep existing structures in place," says
NOVASC.

The organisation is also committed to promoting a culture
of "do noharm" and non-violence, preparing people to understand the nature
ofconflicts and to have skills to transform them into constructive,
peacefuland just outcomes.

Among NOVASC's main objectives are
the creation of a national networkof mediators drawn from relevant sectors
of the society and to shareexperiences, dilemmas of dealing with conflicts,
disputes, negotiations,deadlocks and the use of violence, so as to
contribute to a national processof dialogue towards tolerance and lasting
peace.

The task ahead seems insurmountable but he Coalition on
ConflictManagement is determined to make a change in the healing process
through itsvarious arms borne by the organisations it
represents.

Will Zimbabweans ever be able to live in peace with
each other bymoving away from the violent, confrontational and intolerant
attitudes thathave prevailed during the past couple of years?

The Coalition on Conflict Management has taken the lead and needs
allpossible support to help restore sanity to society.

THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has set up an
anti-corruptionhotline at the Beitbridge border post, for members of the
public to reportcases of corruption amongst Customs
officials.

The State is believed to be losing billions of
dollars in revenueannually as a result of corrupt practices by customs
officials.

That resulted in Gershem Pasi, the Zimra
Commissioner-Generalinstituting a rotating system for the authority's staff.
No Zimra staffmembers are going to be permanently based at any border post
as Zimra triesto prevent its staff from getting used to members of the
public frequentingspecific border posts.

The Transparency
International Zimbabwe (TIZ), a local anti-corruptionorganisation said the
establishment of the hotline by the Zimra was longoverdue.

"It
is pertinent that corruption at Customs be curbed urgently,because the
country is being prejudiced of valuable resources that can beput to better
use," said Andrew Nongogo, TIZ executive director.

"This is
important in the context of the country's current economicproblems, which
create tempting conditions for officials to engage incorrupt
activities.

"We strongly encourage Zimra to establish hotlines at
all Customspoints to deal with potential or suspected cases of
corruption.

The hotline numbers must be well publicised for all
members of thepublic to participate, and TIZ is prepared to support similar
initiatives inother government departments, to assist the public to fight
corruption inthe public sector."

However, Nongogo said the
hotline was going to achieve a lot if thereis money and protection for those
who would have reported cases ofcorruption by Customs
officials.

"The establishment of the above-mentioned hotline falls
in line withTIZ's advocacy for the establishment of a Whistleblower's Fund,
which willencourage members of the public to report cases of corruption as
they occur," said Nongogo.

Last year, Simbarashe Makoni, the
Minister of Finance and EconomicDevelopment in the 2002 Budget statement
said whistleblowers would berewarded.

THE outgoing Canadian High Commissioner
James Wall, on Sunday said hewas sad to leave the country at the end of his
term without having promotedtrade, economic and commercial links with
Zimbabwe due to unfolding eventshere.

Speaking at a
reception to mark his country's national day, Wall said:"Although it was a
busy year, I must confess that I did not do some things Iwished. As High
Commissioner I would have liked to have had ministers of mygovernment
visiting Zimbabwe to foster trade and economic and
commercialties.

"I would have liked to see ever increasing
numbers of Canadiantourists visiting this beautiful country. That did not
prove possible."

The Zimbabwe government, as usual, did not respond
to Wall's speech asthere were no ministers in attendance. The country's
national anthem wasplayed instead.

Wall said Zimbabwe's economy
had shrunk by about 20 percent since hearrived in the country three years
ago and the "well-known events oncommercial farms associated with the
elections in 2000 and 2002 have servedto dampen the investment and tourism
that embassies normally try to foster".

He said instead of
nurturing these links, Canadian officials,including senior ministers and the
prime minister, had spent most of theirtime trying to understand and respond
to the situation in Zimbabwe.

"They have done so in the spirit that
has dominated our relations withZimbabwe since independence and they have
done so on the basis of the spiritthat has characterised our relations with
Zimbabwe since independence, whileasserting the common values articulated in
the Harare Declaration that aresupposed to knit the Commonwealth together,"
said Wall.

Zimbabwe has been torn by strife for the past two years
following theviolent invasion of farms by so-called war veterans and Zanu PF
supportersas President Mugabe sought to consolidate his stranglehold on
power.

The violent farm seizures and persecution of the opposition
and theindependent media has led to the drastic reduction of tourists coming
toZimbabwe and the number of foreign investors.

NON-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the Southern
AfricanDevelopment Community (Sadc) have lambasted the Zimbabwe government
forfailing to adhere to basic good governance
principles.

The NGO council, meeting in South Africa over
the weekend, called fora constitutional review in Zimbabwe to ensure good
governance.

The council is the umbrella body of NGOs in southern
Africa. At theend of their two-day meeting in Johannesburg, the council
committed itselfto engaging with "regimes" such as Robert Mugabe's
government that stillignore the will of the people.

With Africa
in the spotlight this week after the G8 summit in Canada,the council was
critical of Zimbabwe, seen by many as providing the litmustest for the New
Plan for Africa's Development (Nepad).

The government has largely
been blamed for human rights violations,starting in the run-up to the June
2000 parliamentary election up to theMarch 2002 presidential election,
condemned by many international observersas neither free nor
fair.

Most of the developed world has refused to acknowledge as
legitimateMugabe's controversial re-election in March.

The
council expressed concern over events in Swaziland, Malawi andNamibia,
criticised for their lack of freedom of expression and attempts bytheir
leaders to entrench their power by changing the constitution.

Malawi's Bakili Muluzi, once commended for taking Mugabe to task overhis
iron-fisted rule in trying to maintain his stranglehold on power, is
nowseeking to amend the constitution to allow him to run for a third term
aspresident.

The Sadc NGO council said most of the problems
plaguing the continent,among them poverty, famine, HIV/Aids and human rights
violations, wereworsened by weak or corrupt leadership.

THE Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) says it
is suingthe people suspected to have raped and murdered teachers during the
past twoyears.

Raymond Majongwe, the PTUZ
secretary-general, on Tuesday told a Pressconference in Harare that they
were consulting the families of the deceasedteachers and other political
victims from the time of the June 2000parliamentary election up to the
presidential poll in March this year.

Majongwe said: "At the moment
we have two cases of murdered teachersthat we have brought before the
magistrates' courts.

"The murderers and rapists are known Zanu PF
activists. As PTUZ, weare saying those who stand accused of the murders and
rape cases should bebrought before the courts, tried and convicted."